Bob Whelan

Enamored of airplanes and all forms of atmospheric flight for as long as he can remember, Bob still looks up when airplanes pass overhead. Now retired from engineering (and later, commercial driving) adventures, he and his wife still regularly visit (and sometimes camp on) little airports whenever opportunity presents. He made two large purchases when a senior in college: a car, and in partnership with his older brother, a BD-5B kit (never finished). Thirty seven years later he sold the car for $500 and has flown ~2050 hours in his fifth sailplane, has great respect for all forms of piloting skills and judgment; he's learned useful, life-applicable, things from almost every pilot he's met. He's also authored two books about soaring using his formal moniker “Robert F.”

I don’t mean to suggest the absence of a few self-inflicted off-airport sailplane landings precludes a person from being a fundamentally skilled, aware, and eminently safe power pilot, of course. Far from it. It’s just that even the relatively simple act of “collecting a glider rating” can easily have beneficial blow-back; learning how to soar without ever leaving the vicinity of your training airport even more; planting a foot in both the power and soaring worlds still more.

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Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins, dedicated to “the development of private air transportation.” It’s a different world now, and it’s a different Air Facts. Relaunched in 2011 as an online journal, Air Facts still champions, educates, informs and entertains pilots worldwide with real-world flying experiences.

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